Malawi v Cote D'Ivoire stream

[Rowls]

I think you will find that some 75% of Swiss people do not call Switzerland “Suisse “. Switzerland has four official languages, German, French, Italian and Romansh, which use the words Schweize, Suisse, Svizzera and Svizra for the name Switzerland. Only approx 25% of Swiss people are French speaking, calling Switzerland la Suisse. The Swiss parliament has to translate and issue documents in all these languages, though not always in Romansh. To complicate matters further the diversity of languages means that Switzerland uses the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation) on its stamps, coins etc, which is shortened to CH on its international number plates, internet etc.

Certainly a very complex country but I've always found French to be the dominant language there*. The lingua franca, so to speak.

Where did you get the 25% figure from?

* edit - but I've always been much closer to the French side than the German side (or the Italian enclave, for that matter).

[Vino blanco]

Try google Rawls, it’s amazing. German is by far the largest, some 63%.

[claretandy]

Cornet on the bench for the return match.

[Baldrick claret]

Never mind all these country names, why do the commentators call Jesus, Jayzuuuss? And Gundogan Gundooowaaan? Trippier Trippieayy? We speak English. There’s loads more if you get my drift!

[Rileybobs]

Never mind all these country names, why do the commentators call Jesus, Jayzuuuss? And Gundogan Gundooowaaan? Trippier Trippieayy? We speak English. There’s loads more if you get my drift!

Not sure about the pronouncement of Trippier, but it’s the respectful and proper thing to do to pronounce people’s names the way they should be said, not how they’re written.

[Paul Waine]

I think you will find that some 75% of Swiss people do not call Switzerland “Suisse “. Switzerland has four official languages, German, French, Italian and Romansh, which use the words Schweize, Suisse, Svizzera and Svizra for the name Switzerland. Only approx 25% of Swiss people are French speaking, calling Switzerland la Suisse. The Swiss parliament has to translate and issue documents in all these languages, though not always in Romansh. To complicate matters further the diversity of languages means that Switzerland uses the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation) on its stamps, coins etc, which is shortened to CH on its international number plates, internet etc.

Hi White Wine,

Yes, agree, Switzerland has a number of official languages. I've got good friends who speak "Swiss German" and live in central Switzerland. Also, many years ago I spent a week for work in Lugano, in the Italian speaking region.

[Paul Waine]

Never mind all these country names, why do the commentators call Jesus, Jayzuuuss? And Gundogan Gundooowaaan? Trippier Trippieayy? We speak English. There’s loads more if you get my drift!

It's called phonetics. Although many languages share the same letters in their alphabets, the sound of these letters often differs from one language to the next. The Netherlands (and Flemish speaking parts of Belgium) pronounce a "soft G" in much the same way as the English sound "H." Ruud Gullit, for example, is not pronounced to rhyme with "gullet." And what sounds like "la hoya" in San Diego, Southern California is spelt "La Jolla."

[Vino blanco]

Hi Paul, I also spent a lot of time in the company of people who spoke Swiss German. I pride myself on the fact that at that time I spoke German very well (as I still do) but when I was with my colleagues who were Swiss Germans I struggled to understand 20% of what they were talking about. It really is almost like a different language, yet when they wrote letters or reports they wrote in normal German. I suppose it is like trying to understand a broad Scots dialect.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Good that Maxwel stayed on the bench tonight given that pitch. Hopefully he will be OK for Saturday.